Friday Night Lights

Our first Coffee Bar was Friday night. They told me it’d take about 10 minutes to set up if everyone was there, so I showed up 10 minutes late ;) and Buddy & Julia were the only one’s there. We set out some tables with board games, card games, National Geographic mags, and encyclopedias. Yes, encyclopedias. Some kids are really bored.

Dance Praise was exceptional. Contemporary Christian culture at it’s finest. It was totally just DDR with Christian rock songs. The only Crowder song they have is O Praise Him from Sunsets & Sushi, but they also have some Seven Day Jesus and Steven Curtis Chapman’s Live Out Loud, so I guess it’s ok. After a warm-up dance, I just barely beat Mervin in a duel, though I still need a lot of practice before I can beat Buddy. He’s smoking.

Overall it was a slow first night. It was mostly just the teens from the Ark and the high school Bible Study, but that was fine with me because I’m still getting to know everybody. Even though there wasn’t much need for security, Buddy brought along his walkie talkies, ear buds and all. They were phenomenal. I think we were having a little too much fun with them though because his battery wore out in about an hour.

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They say in Africa you only schedule one thing per day. Good thing I only planned one thing for today. Joan had organized a breakfast for all her preschool teachers as a beginning of the year kickoff. We borrowed tablecloths and full place settings from Emmanuel Church and bought tons of food in Windhoek yesterday. It was quite the event. Joan was going to pick-up the ladies about 7:30am and I was going to help with some of the cooking.

It just so happened that a high-up Herero chief had died this week and his funeral was today. Now in Africa a funeral is a huge deal. They stay up all night before singing and dancing around the fire until they loose their voices. They cook tons and tons of food (more than we bought for our breakfast). The next morning they have a long procession to the cemetery for the burial then go back and eat all the food. Because this was such an important chief, everyone came out. There were cars all up and down the road with tents next to them for people that came from out of town. Even the President of Namibia came out for the occasion.

All that to say, Joan took the kombie out to get the first group of teachers and got caught up in this funeral procession. She finally got back with that group and had to make the second trip, and got caught in the procession again. Finally around 10am everyone had arrived. They ate and socialized and prayed together and by 12:30 we had most everything cleaned up and dishes washed. All that for breakfast. That’s when I went back for a nap. I have much more respect for those that help out with CCA Men’s Breakfasts and I will never work in a hotel.